Marshalls Creek resort landmark has history … and a ghost

Friday

Jan 18, 2013 at 9:11 AM

Jay Huffman in 1918 purchased a 12-room boarding house in Marshalls Creek called Mountain Lake House. With the help of his wife, Edith, and his eight children, Mountain Lake House became one of the premier full-service resorts in the Poconos.

Jay Huffman in 1918 purchased a 12-room boarding house in Marshalls Creek called Mountain Lake House. With the help of his wife, Edith, and his eight children, Mountain Lake House became one of the premier full-service resorts in the Poconos.

Construction in the area, known as the Cottage Colony, began in 1925. Situated off Route 402 across from Mountain Lake House, it offered eight bungalows. Families usually stayed there through the summer.

Cottages were built one at a time, as needed, and each was named for one of Jay's children. Although the colony offered none of the amenities of Mountain Lake House, its residents enjoyed use of the facilities that Mountain Lake House offered. The Cottage Colony was sold to a neighboring resort, Mountain Manor. Although Mountain Manor and the Cottage Colony still stand as of this writing, neither is in operation.

Growing family business

Sometime after 1943, Jay added the property known as the Marshalls Falls House to the family's growing resort business. They changed the name of the building, which stood at the junction of Business Route 209 and Route 402, to the Village Inn and turned it into a shining example of luxury country accommodations. Complete with a gift shop and ornate billiards room, the Village Inn could house 140 guests and was managed by Norman Huffman until it was replaced by a shopping center in February 1980.

Jay's son, Elwood, took over management of Mountain Lake House in 1940. A large man, Elwood could always be seen overseeing the property with his dog, Cappy. Elwood continued to manage the resort until 1961.

In 1961, Norman Huffman added management of Mountain Lake House to his already busy schedule. He continued to manage the property until his brother, Carlyle, purchased the Mountain Lake House holdings from the rest of the family and installed his son, Bob, as manager in 1971.

In 1982, Carlyle Huffman sold Mountain Lake House to the Farda family. They changed the name of the property to Mountain Lake Resort at that time.

Mountain Lake House closed in September 2000. The resort remained idle until it was sold in 2004 to Richard Blewitt whose dream to reopen the resort (to be called Rich's Promise) as a haven for the families of active-duty military personnel was never to be realized.

In 2004 vandals burned down the Rec Hall, and in 2006 the Marshalls Creek Volunteer Fire Department demolished the remaining wood-frame structures in a controlled burn.

The only remaining structures on the property are the pool, a barn, the tennis courts and the Lakeside Motel.

The property is still for sale as of this writing.

Lady in Blue

This story has been going around Mountain Lake House for as long as anyone can remember. We leave it to you to draw your own conclusion:

Former owner Bob Huffman, who bought Mountain Lake House in 1982, said he had gotten reports a spirit "haunts" Mountain Lake House called The Lady in Blue.

He said, "She lived upstairs in the main house. It is there where the phantom had been noticed most.

"She was the head housekeeper at one time. I think she died here. It wasn't anything violent, though. She just passed away.

"She's been seen in the pantry and in the kitchen. A woman and our chef have reported seeing her. She's been seen walking down the lane, and in about 1994, someone saw a lady in the early morning in the front, walking from the lodge. She was a lady in a light blue coat — that seems to be her M-O. 'Buddy' just kind of looked up, and there she was. He was distracted, and she was gone."

"Buddy" is Buddy Spang, a chef at Mountain Lake who lived there year-round for nine of the 17 years he had been employed at the resort.

He continues the story, "My girlfriend (now wife) lived in the employees' building. We were there one time, and we definitely heard footsteps. One time, the two of us there were walking toward the ballfield and we were going past what was the employees' building. We saw a silhouette in the window. We walked over and went in, and nobody was there."

Spang, who started at Mountain Lake as a dishwasher, spent time alone in the kitchen, and says he often sensed the presence of energy around him.

Spang continued, "Once, I looked across the kitchen and saw something in blue. I thought it was the manager because she had a blue dress on that day. So. I waited for her to come out past the shelf to tell her something and nobody ever came out. I definitely saw that woman, and it was most definitely a sighting."

Spang has talked to other former chefs and employees, and more than one has heard of the ghost, or has had an experience. Some people have pooh-poohed the story, but others have sworn that the Lady in the Blue Coat was very real — or surreal.

Buddy recalled another incident, saying, "It was wintertime, and my wife and I were the only ones on the property. Another couple came to visit. They came down the driveway. They said, 'You know, for such a nasty night, there's some lady in a blue coat just walking down the lane!' Of course, my wife and I just looked at each other. We didn't bother telling our visitors about our visitor."